UW considering American Indian center

The American Indian Studies program at the University of Wyoming says that they have contracted architect Johnpaul Jones to develop a proposed American Indian center at U-W.

Jones has worked as lead-consultant for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, as well as numerous other cultural centers, museums and parks.

Judith Antell is Director of American Indian Studies at UW.

"Johnpaul Jones has been asked to come to campus to begin an initial conversation, a first step in this long process. And so the vision at this point is that the center would likely provide many services and house programs certainly beyond American Indian studies."

Antell says that at this point, there has been no firm commitment as to when or where the center will be built, or how funding will be acquired. However, she says Jones will help facilitate a number of community meetings over the next year, so that the program could have formal conversations and needs data can be collected for a final proposal.